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Why They Fight Us
by Lisa Fabrizio
29 July 2005

The quickly collapsing canard that Islamist rage is reserved only for participants in Operation Iraqi Freedom is still being touted by some on the left here and around the world.

The quickly collapsing canard that Islamist rage is reserved only for participants in Operation Iraqi Freedom is still being touted by some on the left here and around the world. In some Muslim countries they practically boast of the safety they presume to possess by opposing the Iraq War. The day after the first London bombing, Muhammad Barakat, editor-in-chief of the Egyptian house organ Al-Akhbar, crowed:

We remind everyone that Egypt was the first to oppose the occupation of Iraq and to condemn it. We were the first to predict that the occupation would cause an increase of the phenomena and acts of violence -- not only in Iraq and the region, but across the world. It is only fitting that today we remind the whole world that what Egypt predicted has come to pass. We [also] remind the superpowers who refused to listen to Egypt's counsel and to its just vision that what we warned of has come to pass.

Mr. Barakat might have taken care to remind his own government not to schedule its upcoming free election which was most likely the reason for the horrendous Sharm el Sheikh bombing. In seeking to assign motives for the decades-old jihad, the most obvious are almost always ignored; those directly from the horse’s mouth. As I wrote two years ago:

While the media in this country have produced a myriad of ‘why we deserved it’ material, they never go on to explain the ultimate goal of the jihadists. That would be the total domination of the world by the Khilafah (Islamist rule) and subjugation to the laws of Sharia, which include the penalties of death by stoning for adulterers and amputation for thieves. The proof, for those interested in things like avoiding a global Islamist takeover, is only a mouse-click away. From the Al-Muhajiroun, Shari'ah Magazine, Issue 2, on whether the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad was justified (hint, it was):

Let it be known therefore that all regimes, government and bodies (implementing man made law) in the world today are rejected by Muslims and that the only legitimate authority recognised in Islam on the state level, is that of the Islamic State i.e. Al-Khilafah, which must be established by Muslims and which will carry the message of Islam to the world, striving for the total domination of the world by Islam, through its divine foreign policy of Jihad.

In a must-read document called "Letter to the American People," from last November (2002), and believed by most experts to be written by Osama bin Laden himself, the terror chief answers two questions; why do they fight us and what do they want from us? It is both a fascinating and chilling 4,000 word insight into the mind of a modern-day monster.

The 'why we fight you' portion is a standard rehash of grievances one can hear nightly from Dan Rather or read almost any day in the pages of the New York Times. The 'what we want from you' section however, is much more interesting and almost never reported. He lists seven "conditions" to be met; starting with, of course, our conversion to Islam, and concludes with, "If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the Islamic Nation."

In other words; yes, the terrorists killing innocent Muslims and others in Iraq do so because they despise us, but ultimately because they fear what we can bring to the Arab world: democratic-rule. That is why, in attempting to compel Sharia law, they strike mostly secular Islamic countries like Turkey and Indonesia. Likewise, bin Laden and his followers bear no love for the House of Saud, declaring Saudi scholars apostates ands attacking their own enablers whom they fear are too close to the Great Satan, USA.

But make no mistake, the terrorists also lay claim to any nation where Islam once ruled, or where they make up the majority of the population. This is why Spain in particular is in their crosshairs. Although a tactical victory was won when the Spanish population capitulated and ousted U.S. ally Jose Aznar, Islamists regularly pray for a return of their last European bastion, Andalusia, Spain.

However, by continuing to cowardly attack their fellow Muslims, especially in Iraq, the terrorists may have over-stepped their bounds. It is difficult to hide in plain sight among those who are increasingly becoming the victims of Islamist terror. The last barrier to Iraqi unity is falling now that the Sunnis, for the most part, have agreed to rejoin the constitutional drafting process.

So the terrorists’ greatest fear may soon be a reality. A free, self-governed Iraq, with the wealth of its natural resources enriching the citizenry, is a nightmare for those who seek the despotism of religious perversion for all in the oil-rich Middle East. If they cannot force the tyranny of Islamism on their fellow Muslims, they will have a hard time putting that yoke on anyone else.

Lisa Fabrizio is a freelance columnist from Stamford, Connecticut.

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